Rome (AsiaNews) – Charity “the cardinal principal for the Church” and the affirmation of Christianity’s ethical values, which counter dominant materialism, as well as dialogue between North Korea and Japan. These are the issues which need to be addressed by the Korean Church, according to Msgr. Lazzaro You Heung-sik, bishop of Daejon and president of the National Caritas.
In a long conversation with AsiaNews, which took place on the sidelines of the Caritas Internationalis General Assembly, the prelate explained without hesitation that “Korean materialism is shocking and is producing a society that is increasingly careless of universal values: this is creating a potentially deadly imbalance in the Nation as a whole”.
In Korea, says Msgr. You, “contradictions and social problems coexist, not separately but intimately linked one with the other. As a bishop of the Catholic Church, I believe that our greatest challenge is a rapidly spreading materialism, which puts money first, ahead of human life. Christian values are degraded, and the results of this are felt by the entire society. What is most important is that we encourage the true formation of the person, by reaching out to the very depths of the human being and by witnessing our faith: Christ died, and then he rose again. We must emphasise that these temptations, these strong materialistic, nihilistic trends, are nullified when we find ourselves again, rooted in the Lord”.
One example of this materialism can be found in the case of the “pioneer of cloning” Hwang Woo-suk. The bishop explains, “This person was a Christian but he converted to a Buddhist sect and no longer considered the foetus as a live human being. Our battle against his research, which went on to be proved false, created a sort of tension between the Church and this sect, but in this way we clarified for all to see that we will not be moved on points of Catholic ethics”. At the same time “the publicity he received while he was still considered a type of national hero, must be read in light of what he himself said to the Korean people: he promised to make them all ‘as rich as Samsung’ [magnate of Korean economy]’. This is self explanatory: what really lay behind this manipulation of embryos was neither scientific progress nor the desire to find new cures, but a desire for wealth and immortality. These are the values that we must defeat”.
In this field, he underlined, “the Churches charitable work, which is specific and fundamental to our mission, comes into play”. Through Charity the credibility of our mission is seen and heard. When I learned that the Holy Father had published his first encyclical entitled Deus Caritas Est, I was moved with great joy. The Pope chose Charity as the theme for his first discussion, that it must be a part of every Catholics life and in a special way of Koreans’”.
This is because “despite the strong materialism which indicates economic development, there are many who suffer in Korea. There are poor and sick, elderly and marginalized peoples. In this sense, as a Church and as Caritas, we try to create a climate of communion which is close to those who suffer”.
Of course, he added immediately, “one of our most important projects is humanitarian aid to North Korea: charity can find roads there where none have existed. Confirmation of this point is that after three official visits to North Korea (2005, 2006 and March 2007), I can say that we are being better treated. Clearly there is a lot that still needs to be improved, and we are doing our best to insure this, but the solution lies in the hands and eyes of God”.
In fact, he continued, “people can speak of the North Korean situation from their own point of view, but if they really want to understand its reality, then they have to also adopt the North Korean viewpoint: I see it as a constant process of self examination, which forces me to asses my work, but also my limits. You have to negotiate without judging, by simply saying how things really are”.
In the North, “our priority is to aid society’s weakest: children, the elderly, the disabled. This is because, as with any communist regime, they are seen as weights which tie down economic development and so feel the greatest affects of North Korean deprivation. When we speak as Caritas Korea, with our North Korean counterpart we always make it clear: aid goes to those who need it most, to those who suffer the most”.
Either way, “my diocese mission does not stop with North Korea. It also looks to Japan: apart from the annual bishops summit which takes place each year for three days, this year I also sent three Jesuit seminarians to the Land of the Rising Sun. In Korea the population has a deep respect for its priests, in Japan there is less respect. Sending our seminarians there helps them to understand what it means to live in a society which does not automatically place them on a pedestal, and it helps the Universal Churches mission: the exchange between the faithful of the world”.
The Catholic Church in Korea, concluded Msgr. You, “places a lot of emphasis on Charity work and mission, because these are the objectives which really allow us to live the Catholic faith with the people and root it within the society that surrounds it”.
